Top Christian subversive, Richard Foster, leads the Spiritual Reformation Movement and Richard Foster is also held in high esteem in the emergent subversive church movement. So whats the big deal about the Spiritual Reformation Movement and the Emergent Church? Only that spiritual reformation concepts and the contemplative prayer concepts of the Emergent Church Movement are much the same. This, “get in touch with your own spirituality movement” really comes from practices found in Buddhism, Hinduism and and Roman Catholic mysticism. They all descended from the practices of ancient Babylon. It has nothing to do with concepts taught in Christianity and the Bible.

The concept of spiritual reformation as I understand it, is that they believe one can become closer to God by meditating on their own inner spirituality or god feelings.  Jesus may not even be required by these emergent subversives because they think some Buddhists and Hindus have developed spiritual reformation without Jesus.  Most “Christians” that are into this conjure up a Jesus of their own liking rather than the one revealed in the Bible since most either never read the Bible or they have not understood that the whole Bible is about God’s salvation through Jesus. Thus, they mediate on some Jesus of their very own making that will mystically whisper things they want to hear in their minds eye while in an altered state of conscientiousness.

But, I have emerging news for those emergent’s that are doing this. You cannot become more like God by meditating on your own concept of god. There are no mystical short cuts to Christian spirituality. You only get Christian spirituality through being born of the Spirit and then you grow toward spiritual maturity by living out your faith in practice. You cannot  become more spiritual by trying to become more spiritual any more than you can develop faith by claiming faith. You cannot become closer to God if you are still dead in your sins. Other religions have never come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness of their sins so they cannot have a path to God, they only have a path to their own self deception.

What they never tell you in all the spiritual reformation and contemplative prayer teachings and seminars is that you are a sinner separated from God and you must repent of your ways and be saved through the blood of  Jesus Christ.

Some of what is going on in the Emergent Church Movement reminds me of the old Charismatic Church Movement that thought they could attain a higher spiritual level by just making up their own reality. They called it a “second baptism”.  So what new levels of spiritual maturity have they achieved over the years over other Christians that never bought into their “second baptism” delusions? They thought this would bring them into a relationship with God where they could heal, do miracles and tell each other the future. Instead they often believed false presumptions that are still being displayed to the world with healing circus performances, laughing hyenas and false prophets. Some still think they are “Joel’s Army” or the “Third Wave” and they are going to take the world for Christ by spiritual force, but they display that they do not even have the weapons of spiritual warfare to defeat the devils in their own lives and in their own local congregations. There are no short cuts or mystical paths to spiritual maturity. You do not develop spiritual maturity though a ritual or by believing false presumptions and you do not get spiritual maturity through contemplative prayer and spiritual reformation.

All these new movements are really just putting fancy new covers on the same old book of mystical lies. The Spiritual Reformation Movement and the Emergent’s are just finding common ground to become part of the larger Interfaith Movement. The Interfaith movement is being pushed by people like Tony Blair that recently converted to Catholicism, and then started a Interfaith foundation to find common ground among world religions. Tony Blair also wants to be head of the EEU. This almost sounds like something out of Bible prophecy. The woman (interfaith harlot religion) rides the Beast (That come out of the area of the Roman Empire)

Here is something I found in Jan Markell’s article:

The East is Seducing the West.

Pastor Bob DeWaay writes in his Critical Issues Commentary, “I met a lady who attends a Christian college. As part of her study program, she was required to take a course on spiritual formation. Spiritual formation in her class also concerned the study of Roman Catholic mystics and the search for techniques to help those who implement them feel closer to God. This study also explored ’spiritual disciplines’ which promised to make those who practiced them more Christlike. After she finished the class, she shared her text books with me.”

He continues, “To hear evangelicals like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster tell us that we need practices that were never spelled out in the Bible to become more like Christ or to get closer to God is astonishing. What is more astonishing is that evangelical colleges, seminaries, and church denominations are requiring their students and members to study practices that are relics of Medieval Rome, not found in the Bible, and closely akin to the practices of manry pagan societies.”

You need to understand that this spiritual reformation garbage is being pushed by many Bible colleges. So is it any wonder that so many young pastors teach this stuff to their congregations? By the way, while I am on that subject, why do churches hire pastors (elders) right out of Bible college to be the elder of their church? How did Bible colleges become the proving ground for spiritual qualifications to be the elders of the local Church? Now you know why there is more and more error being introduced into western Christianity. The spiritually immature are put in positions to teach and mislead, all the way from Seminaries and Bible colleges to our local congregations and small groups. Everyone thinks they have a young Timothy leading them but more likely their leader could be named “Trial” or “Error”.

In the same article quoted above Jan Markell gets it correct when she says:

So while the term spiritual formation sounds like a good concept as we all want to grow spiritually, it comes with questionable baggage that is, once again, mystical and hardly sound. Ask questions of your church leadership or college staff. Challenge the issue by pointing out that much of this foundation has been laid by mystics and Catholicism – and throw in some Buddhism and Hinduism as well.  You will then conclude that when the term spiritual formation comes up as it does more and more frequently, it should have a “buyer-beware” label on it. If you see your church bulletin announcing its arrival, don’t just sit there — do something. Confront your leadership!

Such things as the Bethel University symposium on “meditation” and the spiritual formation movement are driven by what is known as “contemplative prayer.” Contemplative  (mystical spirituality) is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement.  It is more likely to derail you spiritually than draw you closer to God.  Don’t believe them when promoters of spiritual formation tell you that this will take you to a higher level of Christianity and to a new level of spirituality. New spiritual programs aren’t necessary;  rather, hearts yearning to grow in the knowledge of the Lord simply from reading the Bible. We cannot get any “closer to God” than Jesus Christ indwelling us through His Holy Spirit!

On the same subject look what Jan has to say about her own school in her article “When Students are Left to the Wolves”

I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to hear the evening of November 3. My alma mater, Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, sponsored an Interreligious Symposium promoting some kind of “common ground” between Buddhism and Christianity. One would think if a Christian had an ounce of discernment, they would deduce that Christianity has nothing to do with Buddhism and such unions are playing with fire. But a panel concluded that there was “common ground” when it came to “meditation.” Granted, this kind of meditation could put one in a dangerous altered state of consciousness, but maybe that’s ok as long as we can find a bit of unity here! Some would call this common bond of meditation “contemplative prayer.”

About 200 students and a few adults were crammed into the symposium auditorium. Attendance by the students was mandatory. The three main presenters were Buddhist monk Witiyala Seewalie from Sri Lanka, Bethel professor Paul Reasoner who is a part of the “Christian Zen” movement, and Ted Meissner, an active Buddhist layman and meditator in Zen, although he grew up in a Christian home.

The push was “meditation.”  But being a Buddhist means becoming conscious of one’s own divinity. This was not clarified. Had it been clarified, it could have sent out a huge red flag to questioning students at Bethel.  So why would Christians get on board with this kind of meditative enlightenment when acknowledging one’s own divinity for a Christian would be idolatry and an abomination to the one true God?

The students were encouraged to do meditation that would silence or empty their minds. Keep in mind that some who promote this kind of meditation such as Richard Foster, actually tell you to pray a prayer of protection over yourself before you begin! Yet there was no warning to innocent and naïve students and again, attendance for most there was mandatory.

We heard a lot about those ancient mystics and desert fathers. Here we go with the mystical again, and mysticism always trumps doctrine. Bring on “experience”!! Another panelist talked about the Jesuits he studied under. Is Bethel a Baptist-rooted university or Catholic-rooted? Try the former.

A symposium like this is leading these kids straight to the Emergent Church which goes along with all of the above. And if anything will bring spiritual death, it is all things Emergent. The step beyond that is the one-world religion.

Brannon Howse also has a defining view of this emerging church threat in this article promoting his book.

The Emerging Third Way of Apostate Pastors and Globalist Leaders

The pastors and authors of one of America’s fastest growing spiritual movements, the Emergent Church, sing the praises of socialism. As I’ll explain in more detail later, the Emergent Church champions the neo-Marxist call for a utopian society through spiritual evolution where good and evil merge to form a “better” third option. This idea derives from the belief system of philosophers such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and finds its contemporary manifestation in the “Third Way” movement of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In the Third Way, capitalism, socialism, and communism merge to form a misanthropic combination of the three. This blending is now represented in the terms “the New World Order” and “the new enlightenment.”

The Third Way promotes Communitarianism, a toxic blend of communism, socialism, atheism, and Cosmic Humanism. Communitarians believe in universal health care, government-subsidized housing and education, radical environmentalism,Fabian socialism, and the like.

The bottom line is that the Interfaith Movement, The Emergent Movement, and the Spiritual Reformation Movement is leading to the Harlot of Revelation chapter 17. We see that one pied piper named Tony Blair converts to Roman Catholicism, starts an interfaith foundation and also wants to be the head of the EEU and meanwhile the emergent rats just follow his tune and march over the cliff to spiritual malformation.

I hate to be one old Jack Frost here, but I think that people are being misled by economic fair weather friends. Green shoots in the economy in November does not mean that summer is coming.  We had a economic cold spell and it now looks to be moderating into Indian Summer but winter is still coming to America. The great economic winter of the United States has barely even begun.

This article by Ron Paul tells you to be prepared for the worst.  I agree with Paul, a bad economic winter is still coming to America. Ron Paul thinks we have about a year left before what I call the economic winter hits. I do not know if the economic winter will hit tomorrow or in five years but I do know we only have a short season left. If I look at the big picture on America’s economic condition that is the only conclusion I can come to.

The old crows in Washington picked the money tree clean and dropped half digested leaves out of helicopters, but the money tree is now bare. Seeing that the money tree is already bare you ought to get prepared for economic winter.

Obviously if  Uncle Sammy is going to put trillions of dollars on his credit card and then just drop the money out of helicopters people are going to pick it up and buy things, but the bad news is that Uncle Sammy’s credit card is now over its limit and the creditors are getting nervous.

What happens on your own credit card when you are too far in debt and your bank gets nervous? The lenders will raise your interest rate and they will not increase your limits anymore. What will happen to your cash flow then when that happens? It will be the same thing with the United States. Those buying America’s debt will soon demand more interest and they will also quit expanding our line of credit.

So, within the next few years instead of the government putting trillions into the economy like it did to create this economic Indian Summer, Uncle Sammy will have to use his income  to pay his creditors back. Then the people and programs that also depend on Uncle Sammy will know that economic winter has arrived because Sammy will not have enough income. Rather then have a revolt from his dependents Uncle Sammy will either raise taxes or print funny money but those actions will bring either a depression or hyper inflation and economic winter will have arrived in America.

The six main reasons why economic winter is coming.

• Uncle Sammy has been spending far more than he has and he is now borrowing from loan sharks.  Interest rates are sure to rise fast shortly. If Uncle Sammy does not pay the loan sharks they will break his knee caps.
• Uncle Sammy has been embezzling all of the money out of public entitlement funds for decades and replacing them with worthless IOU’s. When people find out that Uncle Sammy robbed them blind and cannot pay the IOU’s and that they will not receive what was promised to them, they are  going to get real ugly. They certainly will not be willing to send Uncle Sammy any more of their hard earned money.
• Uncle Sammy has become a socialist. He thinks you create wealth by robbing the productive and redistributing it to the unproductive.
• Uncle Sammy is a gullible sucker and is taken in by every scam that comes along. His globalist fair weather friends just came up with the mother of all scams. It will double the price of Uncle Sammy’s energy. The scam is in convincing Uncle Sammy that they can make it cooler in the Summer by making Uncle Sammy’s energy too expensive to use in the winter.
• Uncle Sammy is getting old and did not have children. The children he did not have will not be coming to his tent to take him out for lunch during the economic winter in America.
• Uncle Sammy has become Godless and perverted.  Therefore, there will be no divine intervention to prevent economic winter from coming to America.

Many unbelievers who do not understand Christianity like to talk about the atrocities of Christian Europe as if Europe was ever truly Christian. Being baptized into a state church does not make one a Christian. You have to believe in Christ and obey his teachings to be a Christian. Most of Europe was never Christian by any biblical definition of a Christian. That is why many true Christians were persecuted in Europe and fled to America. Pre-World War II Germany was not Christian any more than Germany is Christian today.

AD: Pre-Nazi Germany was an Unchristian Nation – Bruce Walker – Jun 15, 08

Few myths warm the hearts of Leftists as much as the myth that Germany was a Christian nation which voted Adolph Hitler and his National Socialists into office. This allows Leftists who hate Judeo-Christian moral traditions, which almost, all Leftists, to cow Christians into silence (didn’t you Christians let Hitler take power?) And it allows Leftists to spread the seeds of distrust between Christians and Jews(see what happens when Christians have power?) Also, because of the doctrinal divisions within Germany, Protestants and Catholics too often tried to defend only their branch of Christianity and leave the other undefended from defamation. So it is that even books written by Christian authors that explore the relationship between Nazism and Christianity blithely assume that the German people, before the Nazis came to power, were predominately Christian – and that these Christians only belatedly discovered the depth of Nazi evil.

The atheists are in vogue again. Just like there were in the past when atheism and evil philosophies rose in the world. We must be heading toward a new demonic deception and these delusional God haters are helping to set the stage. This is a good article that puts their stupid arguments in the proper trash receptical.

What Triggered Such a Sudden Onslaught of Hard-Core, Mean-Spirited Atheistic Propaganda? – CWN

The evidence clearly shows that many of our institutions of higher leaning are cesspools of atheism and hotbeds of radicalism, including sexual radicalism. It’s as though we’re reliving the pre-French and pre-Bolshevik revolutionary eras.

Prior to the French Revolution, atheism was rampant throughout the nation along with the sexual radicalism of the Marquis de Sade, Mirabeau, Jean-Paul Marat and the Jacobins, Robespierre, etc.

The same was true during the years preceding the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Communism was founded on the atheism and socialism of Marx and Lenin with Darwin’s evolutionary theory thrown in for spice. Remember that it was Marx who wrote Engels saying, “During . . . the past four weeks I have read . . . Darwin’s work on Natural Selection . . . this is the book which contains the basis in natural science for our view.”

Now we are being assaulted with what is sometimes labeled “New Atheism.” Paul Kurtz’s Center for Inquiry, for example, is conducting a summer institute for young atheists entitled “The Journey From Religion to Science.” One of their course descriptions reads, “Contemporary issues in secular studies; multisecularism, desecularization and the ‘new atheism.’”

In reality, however, there are no new arguments for atheism. Unless “new atheism” means “new atheists,” it’s a misnomer. The arguments that the French and Communist atheists had in their quiver generations ago are the very same arguments Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, and Harris (DHDH) have in their quiver. It seems each generation is called upon to face the same issues, and the question of God’s existence is a perennial.

Because we, too, must face the issue of atheism head-on, let me recommend the four books listed at the top of this article by Aikman, Berlinski, Day, and Lennox (ABDL). These authors handle all the major arguments, accusations, and assertions of the new atheist crowd. Indeed, it’s as if we have two law firms bidding for the hearts and minds of this generation. And so they are because ideas have consequences. Theism and atheism have consequences.

The postmodern generation is shifting into the belief that they can create their own humanistic utopia by just harnessing collective powers. Man creates His own reality. That’s “The Secret”, The “Word of Faith” movement, it is postmodern thought moving into the Emerging Church and it all originates from Eastern thought where God is everything.

Collectively mankind becomes God and all religions are paths to cosmic consciousness.

The distinctions between the children of light and the children of darkness on the earth are becoming well defined in these last days. One family on earth claims to be children of God because of what God did for them and the other family claim to be self evolving god’s.

The Great Enemy of the Church and America Is Not Secular Humanism As Once Thought But it is Pagan Spirituality – CWN

What has killed secular humanism? People are beginning to realize that, far from creating a humanistic utopia, secularism has produced two devastating world wars, a series of mounting ecological disasters, and a “disenchantment of the cosmos.” The West has begun to lose its faith, not in religion, but in human reason.Oddly, the death knell was sounded not by robust Christian witness, but by the “atheistic” postmodern children of secular humanism. The withering barrel of the postmodern laser gun has been aimed not so much at Christianity as at the ideology of Enlightenment secularism, at the belief that reason could deliver objective truth. This postmodern, relativizing of all truth has undermined the faith of modern man in his own rational abilities. This “postmodern” thinking is taught in the vast majority of philosophy departments throughout the world as “gospel truth.”

Alister McGrath asks, “What will replace atheism?” Here is my answer: atheism will be replaced by pantheism. Logos (word) will be replaced by mythos (myth). The conclusion stares us in the face. Postmodernism has brought an end to secularism. But this raises a further question: where does Postmodernism lead us? Lutheran scholar Frederic Baue answers: “[to] a phase of Western or world civilization that is innately religious [emphasis mine] but hostile to Christianity…or worse, a dominant but false church that brings all of its forces to bear against the truth of God’s Word

You are might as well know where the U.S. is heading now that Christians have allowed secular humanists to take full control.

Worldview Wars – CWN

Because of having allowed itself to be chased out of the political arena in the name of separation of church and state or the “work of the Kingdom,” the Church will find a new challenge from a totally “atheized” secular government, which is now poised to begin telling the Church what it will say and do and what it must not say and do; what it can believe and what it cannot believe. Moreover, the governments of the West will continue their deterioration towards increased authoritarianism as the chaos caused by the new relative values continues to unravel the bonds that held society together under the Christian paradigm.We are simply following in the footsteps of those countries of the past, which embraced the humanist, socialist worldview; from Rousseau and the French Revolution to the Bolsheviks in Russia, to Nazi Germany, to Chairman Mao, to Castro’s Cuba. In each case, the holders of the new worldview knew they had to co-opt or defeat the Church in order to put their value system in place in the hearts and minds of the people, especially the children. Typically, the churches of those countries never saw it coming and in many cases actually participated in their own demise. In essence, been there, done that – but few of the churches see the oncoming danger.

I know Dave Hunt wants to debate these New Atheists by the Bible but they don’t believe anything in the Bible so the point is rather mute.

Vox Day demolishes the New Atheists arguments using reason, science and historical documentation rather than theology. So from either a biblical faith point of view like from Dave Hunt or a ration point of view from Vox Day the New Atheists arguments totally fail.

WorldNetDaily exclusive columnist Vox Day’s new book, “The Irrational Atheist,” scores a direct hit on atheism’s most well-known practitioners. Using reason, science and historical documentation – not theology – Day argues the atheists into an inescapable corner.

Read Joseph Farah’s full interview with Vox Day

One of the great mysteries of the world is why many Jews love to hate themselves. Some like those spoken of in this article actually encourage antisemitism. The truth is that just like many of the Jews in Jesus time these are not true Jews. They are of the synagogue of Satan. They are secular humanist atheists who hate the God of Israel. Is it any wonder that the Bible says that two-thirds of those who call themselves Jews will be cut-off.

clipped from http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59786 JERUSALEM – Israeli college professors who label their country a Nazi apartheid regime, teach that the Bible is full of myths, urge the downfall of the Jewish state, and speak at conventions calling for the boycott of Israel?

Those are fair points to bring up because they will be brought up. If Obama claims to practice Christianity he will be on the radials Islam hit list. If he embraces Islam he will sell out on Israel and could not take decisive action in the war on Islamic extremism anywhere in the world.

In Actuality I think Obama is either an atheist or believes in Universalism. He himself says that he is  Universalistic, meaning that he would think that all paths ultimately led to God. However, I believe by his moral positions that he is totally secular and only uses religion for his own end. No matter what he is his Islamic background is going to make it very difficult to have a well defined foreign policy. I can see him flip flopping all over the globe making speeches that appease one group while ostracizing another. Just like he did when he spoke in Rick Warren’s church about world social issues after being one of the most abortion friendly leaders in the nation.

If Obama is elected we will have socialism at home and a foreign policy that will turn out to be a complete disaster.

If he left Islam, Obama must have very definite thoughts about it. He has to, he practiced Islam. That is not benign; it’s big. And even if, as inferred by big media, it was not big to him, then he can still appreciate how important it is knowing what he knows about Islam and apostasy.
Obama would have had to make a decision to reject Islam. When did he make that decision? How? Why the silence? Why the reluctance to talk about it?
Apostasy is punishable by death in Islam. Have there been calls for Obama’s death? If not, why not? Islam gives no free passes.

As far as Israel is concerned, if Obama makes it to the big house, Israel is screwed. Finished. Obama’s church and Jew-hating pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., makes that evident. Israel will be on its own.

Full article

Compromise isn’t just found in the Emergent Movement – CWN: “As W. Graham Scroggie said, “Light and darkness, right and wrong, good and evil, truth and error are incompatibles . . . when they compromise it is the light, the right, the good, and the truth that are damaged.”

The biggest danger to the evangelical Church is not false religion or atheism, but compromise; it has always been a tool of the enemy. When compromise occurs, we can have church growth but no depth; numbers, but no character; enormous buildings, but small hearts. We “play” Christian, but have the tendency to compromise everything that Christ stood for. We have riches, wealth, and prosperity, but neglect the weightier matters—love, mercy, and forgiveness. When compromise reigns, we can easily become insensitive, indifferent, ineffective, unforgiving, unloving, unmoved, and self-righteous. “Where does Christianity destroy itself in a given generation? It destroys itself by not living in the light, by professing a truth it does not obey” (Tozer). (See Revelation 2:1-29 & 3:1-22.)”

WorldNetDaily: Why atheist books are best-sellers: “with Islamic religious violence increasing, Western secularism increasing and liberal religion merely echoing secular values and its non-confrontationalism, there will be fewer and fewer people capable of confronting religious evil. And with the ascendance of religious evil, the case for atheism will seem even more compelling. “

If you read this article you might understand why people are getting more skeptical of all religion.